Great kid. Sweet. Sour.
Soup with the today is. Welcome to great taste
green building supply We're live as we are every 1st Tuesday I am totally bookended
by Can't you walk Hi Hi Steve Hansen That is not cool that you don't have to know
why I don't go that route and I like get closer closer right exactly you guys talk
talk away right yeah right this is my son Jake
a boss hi hi dad thanks so much for having me on Great to be here I just want to
say one thing he brought some Indian for he was in Bloomington Indiana and he
brought some Indian food that he had made the so we had it last night and that was
Monday so he brought this food that he made on Sunday and I made an exception and
ate leftovers and it was unbelievable and by me yeah you have this fantastic post
you need to know I don't mean. It's hard to remember here it is I had it yeah it
was great yeah it really was Yeah absolutely and it had sneering at so I could be
better Yeah so we're going to talk about that my friends are always my friends are
always really amazed when I make dinner for them they think that it's so fancy and
so challenging but of course once you show them how simple it is it's an amazing
kind of little trick that you can do when you're entertaining it's to make fresh
cheese at home yeah you know one thing I forgot to do is to remind everybody to
turn their cell phones off especially the co-host since she had hers on me so I did
I did that in part Bethany would kind of use it if you will moment right you know
you have to wait till the microphones in front of you because otherwise it won't
work I'll do my best so we are going to kind of have
a lot of fun playing with summer stuff so that you guys can have great 4th of July
picnic food and we've done some of the stuff before but it never grows old and
we're going to do a kind of a little bit of
a different take on it and actually the 3 of us have 3 different takes on it but
since Kathy made the main and the main course she gets to have her take 1st and
then Jake when are going to talk about. Our little ideas about how to how to change
things up
a bit right OK to make I get they get what I made OK go ahead yeah go get what you
made and we have so we have
a lot of really different foods and plan we have condiment this is
a quick onion pickle. To tell you how to make love. And I love
refrigerator pickles refrigerator pickles are another thing that is easy to make
and impresses your friends when they say wow you through these pickles together so
quickly that's incredible but really they're quite simple and what's funny is I was
going to ask you this question actually the reason it impresses people is because
they don't know how to cook so what would you say what would you say is you know
what the percentage of people in their thirty's that are you know in your circle
what percentage of them do you think actually cook almost none because graduate
students even if they know how to cook they don't have time to do it you know it's
interesting all right the interesting about pick on the eye and says it's not real
and they're not cooked so it they are cooked technically because they're in vinegar
right just like you know when you make when you make. A change you know it's cooked
with the acid right so that's that's cool I mean they're cooked in
a certain way but they're really cool so we've got that and what else what are you
going to show people we wouldn't have had up
a little bit and I knew that Parker and it's something I've been making for
a long time and we may have even made it on the show
a good number of years ago but. This was
a recipe I found somewhere and it was the recipe was for nuts white rice.
She and chili powder and I added
a wild rice make sure and yes she change you drop the white rice Yeah right took
that white rice at me and smoked paprika and that's it it's very simple just us
for ingredients I'm actually making some rice here because the rice has to be
really hot so that it it melts the cheese and makes
a burger so I'll show you that when that's all that price is almost done I'll show
you how that goes but that's my the basic recipe you both have you know we have
a little twist on it but but the thing is that we're testing I've had discussion
maybe I'll get your perspective on this then we've we've talked about this before
we talked about it today it's like you go to
a restaurant that has maybe their burger restaurant and in today's marketplace most
burger restaurant have
a vegetarian burger on the menu whether it's something they actually make or
something that they buy frozen and they serve or whatever and it's usually pretty
bad and most of time is beings being
a burger and I've just never been able to stand this is so simple it's it's like it
doesn't take any amount of time to do it's so much better than the those other
burgers these are all like much more creative people than. And we are.
Is it OK to include you. Anyway I just don't get it why
why why why aren't burgers like this you know on menus places that you can't hold
that no you don't know the rules and you know the rules are that no one touches
this Mike but you're always be his son and the reason and the reason is it's not
even
a rebel things I was you know I've been I've been rebelling against the rules and
so I was 10 but here's the thing you have to understand it's not ego people you
know think oh he won't leave give up the mike it's because Jason strong from
Fairfax Media Center who produces the show says don't let anybody take the mike
because there's lots of noise that goes along with that that makes perfect sense
that makes perfect sense about what I wanted to say was that we should talk
a little bit about why we don't like most restaurant veggie burgers so we can
understand why this is such a superior alternative So for example if I have
a product that is made to perfectly simulate
a meat burger Well I grew up vegetarian so
a perfectly simulated meat burger actually is
a huge turnoff to my palate I don't want to eat something that tastes perfectly
feels perfectly like meat that's not something that I was raised cultured to enjoy
then if it's something like
a vegetable burger that's rich in primarily vegetable matter like broccoli and
spinach and things like that they're typically seasoned poorly and fall apart at
a touch you tap them they crumble you taste them and they don't have enough salt or
they have a strong taste of iron or
a kind of bitterness to them from the seasoning. And they really lack the kind of
unctuousness and multilayered appeal that something like Cathy's burgers brings you
know is really interesting now on the other hand even though he might have been
raised as
a vegetarian I really like the taste of vegan or vegetarian burger Stet
mimic try to mimic meat and there we talked about this I think on the show there's
2 basic 2 big guys in it in the field 2 big companies the field impossible burger
and. Beyond Meat right exactly thank you Tom so impossible we're going beyond meat
and they both have taken widely different approaches impossible burger genetically
modified as
a yeast to mimic heem which is evidently I guess the I don't know all the you know
major stuff but it's like them the thing in meat that gives it its flavor and then
they also now in version 2 they also used to not only modified soybeans as the next
big as the biggest ingredient in it and so you can go to Burger King and you'll be
able to get the impossible whopper anywhere but you really need to know what you're
eating you know because that's something you may not be interested in and that kind
of thing so they've taken that one strategy and the other company has the non
G.M.O. Certification Beyond Meat and they've taken
a completely different obviously tact where they're going down that road and the
major ingredient in their meat type burger is pea protein and
actually it tastes pretty darn good and you can get that Carl's Jr and I don't know
there's I'm sure other. No I mean I'm told that in
a fast food restaurant setting you can get that at Carl's Jr and I don't know if
there's probably some other places but but it's there's a it's
a pretty big battle and it's what I like about it it's so interesting is that the
lines were really drawn very dramatically you know you've got this one company
that's just is going all out with conventional food essentially and you've got this
other company that has said no we're going to take you know we're going to go this
non genetically modified way so it's kind of interesting and the only place I've
had the impossible were was at White Castle and it was really awful but people like
it so anyway you have any comments as
a kid who grew up eating high the era Hardy's sandwiches hold the meat the were
just wines with cheese in ketchup between them when we would travel. But I'm really
I'm really amazed by the fact you can get multiple kinds of vegetarian burgers at
fast food restaurants Unfortunately I don't like any of them and. It's incredible
how far the culture has come you know and there are other chains around that
specialize and in different types of approaches but these are the ones that are
trying to mimic the meat and actually if you listen to their marketing especially
the guy from impossible burger he stated very clearly from the very beginning that
he has no he doesn't care if one person has
a vegetarian or vegan buys his product you know he's only marketing to people who
eat meat and so it's that's another interesting approach I think Mary you had
a question we want people to hear you but I'll repeat it.
Oh if meat grown in
a laboratory so yeah that's going to be the one of the next big things also right
yes so you've got kind of both you got
a lot of stuff happening and let's put it that way yeah
a lot of stuff happening personally we like to just cook our food from things that
we know what they are and we enjoy you know trying to get the freshest food
possible and Luckily we live in
a. Place that that's very easy to do for the most part even in the winter which is
great because we have an all year round farmer's market which is fantastic and yes
. I. Have. I don't I
don't think that I've ever you asked if if if there were if I've had that and the
answer is No I haven't have done so but I'm sure
a lot of people do make veggie burgers with beets they like to do it that way so
that it looks red and also mimics meat and it's OK but you tell me after this
what's the better burger OK we'll see who might like to be one. Who might like to
be and she might not but I bet she's I bet she'll like that
a lot you know so I know a scholar who's produced
a book length volume on laboratory grown meat is there
a place where people can go to get extra resources that we mention in the show
a blog or anything like that a website we can post resources Instagram page
a Facebook reckon share
a link to the book or anything like that when. You just give it to me all right
I'll give it to you. After say you know that's a great idea OK so. We've got
a lot to cover because we've got to do these burgers she's going to show you how to
make those We're going to talk about oven roasted fries who've got sweet potatoes
and regular potatoes we've got a really great dessert is going to make it
a an ale. Which is going to be super on the burgers and she's also going to talk
about
a little bit about how to make the pickles so all that's going to be happening on
the show but I would be. Remiss if I didn't mention some of you were there we had
a fantastic event over the weekend where there was
a screening of the movie are in charge see it to screenings one of them was
completely sold out which was off some analysts support from businesses in town
including Green Building Supply everybody's Whole Foods J.
Boyle err on name tell help me out. And bread.
Already said. Ferguson shop
a distributor village realty. Aaron I see you got mission
twice. At home store fantastic selling all the tickets taking it all takes
a lot of time to do all that front line printing contributed some of the some of
the P.R.
Material so it was great everybody loved it you can everybody love the screening
point material House screening in L.A.
Starting Wednesday he's trying to get his car together. Because it.
So I'll tack thank you so much and they tell us of course and the great thing about
it was not only was it a great event there were lots of people it was
a lot of fun but it raised money for the large cupboard summer food program and
Laura Cohen their executive director is here with us and she I wanted her to come
and talk about some aspect of you know contributions you can make to the Lord's
cupboard that I didn't have any idea about and I was really excited to to learn
about that so please yes so the thing that I believe you're talking about is fresh
produce we absolutely accept donations of fresh produce and it basically goes out
as quickly as it comes and I mean we go through we've received I've been there for
6 years over the 6 years we've received anywhere between $49000.00 pounds of
produce
a year and it goes there is so so little that goes bad it just doesn't sit there
long enough to go bad and you know it's course every summer depending on the
weather there is something that we get way too much of you know it's cucumbers or
it's zucchini or it's tomatoes depending on what's gone. But it it all goes one way
or another so what let's say we have
a garden and we have some extra or whatever it plant tomatoes or Keeney what do we
do yeah yeah just bring it to the Lord's cupboard Monday through Friday one to 4
it's great if it can get there early in the week because that way it doesn't sit
there over the weekend and get dried out or anything but yeah I mean we even have
people in the. Munity who are planting an extra row for us we've had quite
a few kids who have planted little gardens because they wanted to be able to do
something for the lower it's covered so we'll take it all and even there are some
folks in town who really do some some unusual that stables and squashes and stuff
and we love it you know when when folks bring things like that and we say OK what
is it and how do you cook it and then we pass that along to our clients and they're
more than willing to try new things so they can get that and yeah that's that's
really that's really terrific and I'm sure that these type of outreach efforts go
on in most communities around the United States and since this is on You Tube on
the Fairfield media center channel you know if you're listening or if you're
watching this somewhere else all you have to do is is there an easy way to usually
find out who handles those kind of efforts in
a particular town yeah I mean basically it's usually going to be as easy as calling
your local food pantry or even the Regional Food Bank and they would know how to
get your extra produce somewhere will it be will it where it will be used well
fantastic and and in addition to that the Summer Love program. Obviously needs
ongoing support probably for the summer so if you want to just explain you know
what that is yes so the Love program is
a program that happens during the Fairfield school summer break and it is
specifically geared toward helping feed the kiddo those that are home from school
so more than half of the kids in the Fairfield school district qualify for free and
reduced price lunch is during the school year but those are not nearly as available
during the summer so one of my fantastic volunteers came up with this idea 10 years
ago to start up
a summertime program to help those those kids who are eating mom and dad out of
house and home while they're home for the summer and it's just
a little extra food each week kid friendly food that hopefully has
a little nutrition to it and then we also do
a small voucher that the parents can use to go buy again food were specific on the
voucher about what they can buy and that's you know typically fresh things and
things that have some nutritional value and it's just
a 15 or $20.00 voucher that those parents can come in and get but you'd think we
were handing them
a $1000.00 they are so excited about that little bit of extra help so it's
expensive we do about $500.00 loaf orders each summer so it adds up but we really
believe in it thanks so much for everything that you do very great Laura calling
the executive director of the Lord's cupboard All right we got to get going right
we have I actually I'm going to be sorry me yeah. The rice is done
so I'm going to shut just show you how easy it is to make
a darker. So we prepped everything don't care if the cup because.
You know we were talking you know even used what I mean that's if you want to you
could toast them if you want though they get cooked in the oven there's all kinds
of different things you could do we think the cons and walnuts would probably be
the 2 best choice stratosphere and then we've got
a really nice cheddar sharp cheddar again you can use whatever cheese you want but
the chatter is really nice and that's Milton Creamery. Let's see classics
I think quite old fashioned cheddar I believe is in the creamery it's great because
they're an hour away so it's basically just a local one and it is
a really nice chatter and then I'm really into smoked paprika and everybody else
I think adds a lot to that so it's
a taste kind of bad. Yeah it's good. And
a table fan of chili powder and I don't have
a tablespoon but I happen to. Know you better believe we're going to put more of
the top paprika in there too if you put it that yeah so so the main thing here
is that. This recipe other than the seasonings is pretty
easy one cup of nuts one cup of cheese
one cup dry cuts of rice wild rice mix so it's 111 it's got to
once you're in roundtables literally pound one tablespoon of chili powder and then
you make sure your rice is hot and you just put that in here and stir it quite
a bit and. It will coagulate into a burger and then I freeze them just for
a little bit just because it holds them together better so that's the basic. That's
you can't get much easier than and it's really really simple and you'll you'll see
how good their They're really good but people do yeah that's it I mean that's how
simple really it is now the thing is that some people are never satisfied with
recipes that have to tinker with them so we are we've always called this Cathy's
burger is
a Cathy's burgers right but now there's another version right. I started making
them for my friends in Bloomington calling them Benji burgers and they kept asking
where the veggies what veggies are Enet And as you've seen it contains rice and
nuts and cheese and vegetables so I decided that we needed
a new name for them and my husband over there came up with the name wild burgers
because they're based on
a wild rice mix and I decided that I wanted to kick it up to the next level in
my kitchen and try experiment with different flavors what I ended up doing was
throwing in a whole bunch of different spices that add I think
a kind of more layered and and scrumptious experience when you choose through the
burger as I also bake my burgers off thicker than the burgers that were
traditionally made in the kitchen with Cathy and so I add instead of smoked paprika
I use regular paprika and I use apple wood smoked salt to bring some of that smoke
unison and the sweetness of the apple wood smoke salt and then I use garlic powder
and onion powder and mustard powder and I use some. One
or carom seed. And. You have to be really careful with it because it can make
dishes very kind of seem salty so you just use
a small amount of one and then I also use cayenne. And I am
very particular about the cheese that I use because I think that the cheese has the
most substantial effect on the flavor of the burger so I'm pretty set on I'm pretty
convicted in the use of carry golds Dubliner cheese. Or
as my husband calls it the. End so the Dubliner is
a kind of sweet firm cheese that has the properties of an aged chatter but
it also has some of the qualities of
a Parmesan cheese you sometimes get the little white crystals in it and it has
a very rich flavor that lends itself well to I don't want to call it
a meeting as in the burgers but instead rich and textured mouthfeel and
a full flavored bite. So sometime we're going to try that we're going to have to
try your particular version but as I mentioned to you this afternoon since Kathy
was making these I let her do it her way right because I want to live and want to
get in trouble right now so I'm I'm I'm not too smart but I do have
a few smart. Mart in a pinch and
a pinch of snuff. Why because my grandmother would always at
a pinch of cinnamon to her savory dishes so I carry that unison you know and I'd
like that so what I would like to try though in terms of my own refund
is I'd like to do away with all those powders because I'm not
a powder kind of guy and you're not cooking on
a graduate student budget. Fair or not fair enough and I would like to use for
example fresh garlic in here and also I would like to put in what's
the other thing that I want that's fresh I want shallots right I want to put fresh
shallots in and try that but I think Kathy you might be interested in her
perspective because I thought it was
a valid one why do you why did you tell me that you kind of like it this way as
opposed to all the other stuff that I might want to add or that Jacob might want to
add what I feel like it's
a base and then you can do so much with it I'm going to make
a daily and we have
a pickled onions you could use mustard thing ketchup and pickles and coleslaw and
you know yeah so I like to kind of keep things simple and then add and people can
make it their own. So you'll make your own catch ups won't you sometime No no never
have. And what kinds of toppings do you like to make other than me I actually
really like Carmel as Daniel. And that's
a very simple easy thing to do. Time consuming and also I used. A Taco Bell
burger she was really fighting for the buns to be here for this and I said No bones
and of course that if it's tomato season a tomato or a little but a little bit of
a root to lower numbers everybody's got their take on what they like on
a player but those things make the ale and you can taste that yes that sounds like
a great thing so before we move on to the next phase of the show what I'd like to
do is introduce We have this thing that we've been doing for what 3 or 4 months now
where I pick 4 or 5 products from everybody's Whole Foods featured so that people
can see what we like to use in our kitchen and so this is kind of goes along with
some of the stuff that we're doing so we have we have vegetarians which Because
really is mayonnaise for the Ailey and I particularly I just like the grape seed
oil vege an ace that's what I've been using I used for years I think it has the
best taste if you're not going to use
a real mayonnaise Thank you appreciate that endorsement from from one of our
audience members I got
a thumbs up I like that so if you're going to use if you're not going to use real
mayonnaise for whatever reason that you have I think this is
a great substitute vege Nace. OK So Jacob was saying that he uses it
in an artichoke dip that I think we've made on the show before I can remember OK
this is incredible this is what is it no it is
a traditional French vanilla pudding. It's brand
new it's organic it's it's extraordinary somebody is going to walk away with
it as
a door prize of course how much is that how it's Yassin the dairy it's brand new
it's like $399.00 or something like that it is so. Yeah but it's really really good
when you try that bad boy try that again if you don't make your own for me this is
local and we always use we used quite often in in cooking cooking
preparations and so this is
a local. Called Spring sunrise I think it's just new packaging for John revel in
ski pretty sure yeah I think it's new packaging but anyway it's nice I mean I I
highly recommend you make your own because it's it's also it's not difficult to do
and it's really really good that way so. You have it. And
there you go so I thought we did this last month but I couldn't find the shelf
talker everybody so this is the catch of really is on the. On the burgers if you
like ketchup it's
a really got it's got some nice flavors too it is Woodstock ketchup and finally
this is this is rice vinegar which Kathy did not use because they didn't have the
one that we wanted but there's I think they're getting in they have an organic rice
vinegar. On organic rice vinegar that's what we would say to check out if you use
a rice vinegar look for an organic one because the commercial process of making
rice vinegar probably is many people who have discriminating. Who discriminate very
clearly about what kind of ingredients they like I think they might not like the
process of making commercial Rice that are so good the organic version would be
great and but we used to use just regular white figure and she used to have
Saturday night of it happen eventually that's another one and I think I like the
the taste of the rice and much better it's sweeter and it's more mellow right but
we didn't have that right so so those are the future products and of course
everybody's Whole Foods contributes all the stuff that we make and we really
appreciate that because that's how you guys get to eat on the show every month so
it's really fantastic if you want to tell everybody what you're doing yeah I make
him a Ollie and it's one from a Bone Appetite magazine
a long time ago it has cumin and coriander seeds that have been toasted and ground
. Manet's olive oil. Well. Smoked
paprika again and garlic pressed garlic. That's very flavorful and it's really
simple you're just storing the stuff in
a you press that you press in the garlic right because it's becomes that if you
want that garlic flavor really pronounced that's why you're pressing because the
more cell walls you crush the more intense the flavor is going to be and opposite
if you don't want that garlic flavor very strong Don't crush
a lot of cells you know cut the cut the garlic clove in half saute it in whatever
oil you're using and take it out for example.
Olive oil Yes so so so so what Tom Tom was bring up is that in the
film are in charge see that that screen here there was
a discussion about olive oil where the maker it was
a Tuscan maker said that about 80 percent of the oil that's made is lamp oil that's
what he said No what he meant by that was that's all he's fit for was to serve as
light you know to light so people's rooms so they could read
a book or whatever and. I'm not so sure about that I mean this is one maker's
take on it but. The truth is there's
a lot of poor olive oil on the market there's and it's been going on for
a long time everybody you know thinks that something new because what happens is it
surfaces every 5 to 7 years there's an article The New York Times or something like
that and then somebody comes to me and does you read an article about all of us
that which one the one from you know this year the 17 years ago and 7 years before
that or you know whatever so it's just
a standard practice that olive oil or other oil stuff are in demand maybe
adulterated so that it can go further you know think about it this way Italy at one
time not not anymore but really at one time was the largest exporter of olive oil
in the world they were also the largest importer of olive oil in the world what
does that mean that's pretty fascinating right so you do have to knowledge is
important even with with that type of product and with many other types of products
and so if you know the source that's even better it's not that easy to get really
good olive oil that's just the bottom line and the best way to do it is to do some
research online see what other people who who know about all of well you know tell
you but frankly to get
a good olive oil is not an inexpensive thing there are Trader Joe's has many
different all those Mattel trunk owner who did the show the film there is to all
was he likes a Trader Joe's and he recommended one is
a California is called California Olive Oil I think it is California state olive
oil he likes that and he knows where it comes from so he he said that's
a really good one and then there's there's one that they get just for
a few months it's called Novello. And I'm sure it's really good but the thing is
that when you buy olive oil should always be in
a dark bottle because there are 2 enemies to olive oil in most oil so that's light
and heat. So if you bottle your olive oil this precious commodity in
a clear bottle for me that's just
a message saying that whoever's doing not only cares cares more for the marketing
of the product because it's got a great color it's got
a great you know look to it they want everybody to see it well if you care more
about the marketing the product than you do in the product itself I'm looking for
a different product that's just me you know that's just that's just how I feel
about. Ya where she is something that we got off the shelf that everybody's And
frankly you know to be honest I don't know the source of it or or or anything you
know it's it's it's just all well requires a lot of
a lot of research and so I think that this is what was available to us and so we
were using it you know. This is this is not the same California although I made
a mistake actually at the at the screening and said that this was one of the ones
that he recommended he didn't recommend this at all this is probably yeah it's OK
but I don't know I can't vouch for anything about it so it is that it does yes it's
in
a dark cloud right but I can't vouch for anything about I would only tell you about
stuff that I absolutely know about and so this is just it's just not one that I
have to know about. And OK Well so Jacob says this
did well in the latest round of reporting about adulterated oil so that's great
then so fantastic OK so. What you say how do you know
whether it's true when you're researching Well you know. The the best way that you
know is if you actually know the producer and that's and so for me I try to I try
to find things that I actually know the producer but I do that anyway I go to the
farmers market so
a lot of you you go to the farmers market you're buying directly from the producer
you know you know them you know sometimes you know their family you know their
whole story maybe even helped out at what they do so that's the best way to buy
stuff because then you really know the source and then you can move along from
there you know to other other areas that maybe you're not quite as close in
terms of
a relationship but for us we had the good fortune to meet many producers in Italy
over the years and so we we kind of know some things that maybe other people don't
know haven't had the opportunity to do but you can also run into other things you
can find great stories on the Internet and you can check them out
a little bit like there's a Spanish olive oil that I love to use that it's got
a tremendous story to it because. The it's the kind of the story that has taken
place all over the world here and in other countries where
a farm that's been in the family for many many years begins to you lie fallow
because the younger generation moves back to the city and the farm you know just
kind of sits there and so there is this farm in southern Spain where there was it's
been a family for over I think about 4 or 500 years but
a few generations ago there was nobody there to take care of it any longer and now
in the last couple of generations younger people from the family have moved back
and the average age of the trees is 300 years old on this farm which is really
quite extraordinary and these growth and it doesn't give a you know the U.R.L.
Itself is very subtle it's not it's not a kind of
a ripe or oil that you might get from Tuscany like the guy was talking about in the
film or you know from from a harvest in Sicily but it's just got
a really nice melon as to it and the cool thing about the story is that the
importer there's only one importer in the States and this importer is Spanish his
company there's 2 people who own the company and one of the guys is Spanish and he
knows this family and so on all the profits that come from the sale of that oil go
back to the family to reclaim more of the land that's there so it's really it's
a really nice inspiring story so those kind of things you can run into if you start
doing research if you've got the time to do that kind of thing so yes.
Yes yes she does she does the At Home Store has
a nice olive was also very nice so it's always really nice bar Yani is is
a California oil that has a good oil it's
a manual. He does it all in there on his farm and it's
a good oil to get so that's that's that's one of them really good yeah it's in the
dark. But you should also just be aware you know when you see the. Words you know
pure olive oil you don't want that that's not what you want you don't want pure
olive oil is not very good. It just means that it's it's all of oil but it
didn't get there in
a real natural. So so what you want to look for is you want to look for for
a number of things you want to look for certain words that you might see like 1st
cold Prost is one thing that you can look for. Grown and produced in is another
we're thing that you can look for there may be certain labels that some countries
have gotten going now that that indicate that this that the olive oil was you know
grown and produced in that particular country so it's certified. And there are
other things but if you look really closely at
a lot of oil as you'll see in very small letters you know where where it comes from
at the bottom and that even though it might have an Italian name or some other kind
of thing it you may find that it doesn't really come from that particular area.
Sure yes yes so there are there are there's
a chain that's grown up over the last number of years where they have. You know
they call it different things in your place but they have different olive oils from
all over and they have different vinegar so that you can taste and I'm certain that
some of that stuff is probably it's I mean it might be good I don't know enough to
say one way or another Normally I would be
a little suspicious so I probably would still be
a little suspicious but but it's probably there's probably something you might be
able to find there I think that you know again the most important thing is trying
to know your source and really. Being assured because it's
a very lucrative business so that encourages some people to not
be. Oh yeah to not not do things right not do things in an honest manner right so
it's very important if you want to do and see that things are so advanced today
that they can take low quality oil mix it with other seat oils and then add
some really good oil and add some other chemicals to mimic the taste that they're
trying to get at because think about it this way if you buy
a bottle over to go all the and you've been buying it for 5 or 6 years and always
taste the same. How could that possibly be because it didn't
rain the same amount in that area every single the temperature wasn't the same the
soil wasn't the same Nothing was the same but the oil taste to say every single
time. Something
a little strange there so you should definitely be able to tell the difference from
year to year the guy who made it or the person whoever it was the robot whatever
her you know yeah they might have been the only constant anyway so did did is
everybody know about the only it's good right that's it I forgot one product.
Kotto Kotto this is
a deep dark chocolate it's really pretty good actually made out of
a condo Sava car scream and it's. Locally it's not locally grown but it's
a local company so that's that's another one we're going to give away so
everybody's Whole Foods has that long with many other flavors actually so there you
go OK what else what's next I mean Russia potatoes you want tell people how to do
that are there and they haven't Yeah they're in the oven and I tell them to do this
. One. Can you do that mixture quantities for the elite Please Well we
for did 4 times the recipe so I'll give you the recipe for one I can find say
a half
a teaspoon of cumin seeds I can you can send this out can't like sure we can send
it out but it's great to give it because then it's always there OK half
a teaspoon of coriander seeds and you put them in
a dry skillet and toast them and then blend them. Pulverized them half
a cup of Manet's 2 tablespoons of olive oil 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
one and
a half teaspoons of smoked paprika. They put it. If
you're. Right OK So where are you makes for great T.V.
But. The 2 tablespoons of olive oil 2 teaspoons
of lemon juice maybe you want to taste it before you write it down.
And what do they have to spend to smoke pepper. And one garlic clove pressed.
All right and if you're if you're not on my mailing list then this is
a good reason to sign up in I'll send that out so you can just let me know and one
thing I will tell people which is really very important is that you if you give me
your e-mail address you want to be on the mailing list when you get
a note saying you have to confirm you have to confirm or otherwise you're not on
the e-mail list even though you say you asked me to sign you up OK that's that's
important because I noticed people who still have never confirmed you know that are
on there all the time so so we need to talk about the disease who's just yawned.
Has she has
a reason OK that's fine you know I have tried to not bring out of dessert and we
have another important topic that we want to discuss which is other than desert So
tell us about the dessert and then let's let's talk about restaurant behavior
because that's not something that we want to talk about so good service something
that Stephen just
a recipe that Stephen just found where New York Times OK and it's heavy cream
sugar and lemon zest and
a pinch of salt and just boil it and just keep staring at it let it get
a little bit thick and then you take it off the heat and you put in lemon juice and
it can somewhat if not it's I guess his custard. Consists of sitting it's custard
Yeah so we're trying it we're all we're all going to pick for Try it. Between.
The good question I don't know is there is it putting somebody getting that up on
their computer on their phone and tell us you know what it is the question was
what's the difference between putting in custard and I'll let someone look it up
and what was that has existed because you're right that is Custer without eggs
that's exactly what it said yes so now it's not
a real custard so it's custard without its focus of exactly very good focus your
life seems to me let me tell you I think the only good thing is that you don't have
to come up here though Tom so you can come up here so this is great. So now we're
going to get the real custard versus putting what he knows
a sweet milk or cream base mixture thickened with
a gel Latinized start usually corn starch or flour that's cooked on the stove
custards our milk or cream based and are typically firmer than putting more over
custard usually has to be baked with
a water bath. OK well this doesn't. Know Bagan it's not it's not there are them
when you can't do it he can't hear you. So we call this custard putting cookie Oh
good idea I don't even get that custard and putting
a combination could up cooking OK Well anyway it's let's put it back in the fridge
so I guess whatever and then we have to draw Mary you really get actually
a strawberries and then they recommend
a sprinkle of black pepper on top stories so what's
a stronger uniform I know but they're gorgeous looking and they're mass orating we
should probably turn these on get some risk on anything OK yeah that'd be really
not eating. Oh yeah you're right there's
a light over there and they're going to. I did put it in the freezer for
a little while because I didn't feel like it was called enough and I thought it
would get
a little thicker but you mean to keep it in the freezer freeze that. We
did do that we did we did put in the freezer for it's actually supposed to cool in
the fridge for 3 hours which you did but it is really simple to make at home it
takes about it is about
a 20 minute prepare it that's all so if you like it you can find the recipe or
times or if you can't get in because you don't subscribe you can ask for it.
It's like. So what I'm glad I just can't say there's 2
I guess 3 ways you bake your burgers I either sauteed them or broiled them because
we have. Something in the oven I'm going to saute and I like I'm such
a chef you like some crisp shots the crispness on the outside you have that you
know just kind of gets close to them yeah you could grow them you know you just
it's
a good thing about these you see is they generally stay together and that's you really
need out on the grill right you know to be able to stay together might want to use
a girl basket maybe for their own hook I mean there's nothing to cook it's just
a question of getting
a Mormon through and if you want to smoke flavor that's another way to do.
Well the e-mail include the recipe for the burger OK yeah sure sorry Well yes
after money and then I'll do it. In English probably if it Kathy was doing it could
be an Italian Spanish sorry yes or yes sure A Oh yes she's fluent in all those
languages afterwards why don't some somebody can come up and have some
conversations with her I'm sure you find it very enlightening. So
a subject here and you know my heart is to have your own restaurants and I've had
this discussion with an executive chef recently who was complaining about
how
a lot of customers don't understand the relationship between the front of the house
the back of the House and the customer and I think that it's probably.
Something that isn't well known but it's really critical and that is that if you're
at a good restaurant and want to see
a good restaurant I'm not saying that you know there's something wrong with T.G.I.
Friday's or anything like that but I'm talking about somebody who's an individual
owner for example who's putting their heart and soul into whatever they're doing
they're doing it for. Almost all of them are doing it only for one reason they have
a need to serve they have a need to serve people they have
a need to present something to people to that's nourishing and they want whoever is
coming into their place to be nourished that's why they do it because
a very hard job and it's day in day out requires you to
basically put your family secondary that type of thing so it's
a very deep need that they have now when if someone has
a need like that then there's an obligation on the part of whoever is being served
to understand why. That is you know to understand how
we're that person's coming from and to understand then what's necessary and what's
necessary is that he just realize one thing when you go to
a restaurant that is a good restaurant they want to have
a relationship with you they're really not interested in somebody just coming
they're serving them and having them walk out the door they want to develop
a relationship that's exactly what the that they want because that give and take
that energy that goes back and forth becomes something that is exciting to them
just like going to a concert I mean all of us can relate to that you go to
a concert and the audience is really kind and quiet and withdrawn not exciting the
band plays that's how they play to you know right. But you go to
a concert every once in geisha sky crazy I mean supposed to last 2 hours or so if
you know 12 encores because they don't even even get off the stage it's so much fun
so it's the same thing in Iraq strike those people are there the cooks are there
they're not getting paid
a lot of money they're not they're not going home and by and you know
a Lincoln Navigator or anything like that they're there because it's they need to
be there they want to be
a they want to serve you they want to make really great food and have you enjoy it
and so for you it's it then becomes a need to participate there's it's
a participatory relationship as opposed to a service relationship which
a lot of people think that it's
a service relationship and they're mistaken so if you understand that then you're
going to have an even better experiences at restaurants because you're going to be
in the flow of what they're looking for so. There's
a lot of different things I'm not saying by the way that you know if something
doesn't go right that you should ignore it because you want to have
a nice relationship with is there I'm saying that there are ways to to actually
interact with the staff whether it's the front of the front of the house staff or
the back of the house staff and so try to you know essentially understand why these
people are there even servers
a lot of servers are there because they love to serve they love doing it that's why
they're there some of the Course are there because they need
a job and they want to make money but at at really good restaurants think about it
this way if you go to Europe and you're in Italy or France
a lot of people are certain you have been doing that for 20 or 30 or 40 years it's
a profession it's not a part time job it's a profession
a respected profession so this is this is why I think it's really important
to understand you know your part the part you play when you go to
a restaurant so I was in
a restaurant once. And I heard. One of the owners say they went
to the other owner table 5 walked this before they ate table 5 walk as because they
didn't have what they wanted and the owner the other owner said I'd much rather
they walked before they then after they ate they were dissatisfied and so that
brings up another point which is to tell people you know what it is if something
comes and it's cold and supposed to be hot you're within your rights as somebody
who's paying for
a meal to to ask the person who's waiting on you hey listen could you please but if
there's a way to do it and it's in
a nice way in an engaging way you know hey my food's kind of cold you think they
can reheat it for me you know or whatever and you'll find that that gets the kind
of response 99 percent of the time that you're looking for
a lot of people I know never say
a word how did you like the how do you like the restaurant my food was called Did
you tell them No Oh my steak was well done I asked for it medium rare if you tell
them no. You know and that's also we're talking about
a relationship that's something that the restaurant needs you to be participatory
they need to know the need to know my stay close and cook correctly so that they
can get it back to you they want you to be happy they absolutely want you to be
happy and so it's really important that you help them you know. Do they have to pay
attention to everything that you say not no because maybe. Everybody tastes things
differently maybe you tell him that. There's way too much salt in something and
they're going to check it to make sure but it could be that you're just really
sensitive to
a salt tasters or something and so it's different but it could also be the other
way and this is how you know to where you can decide next time I'm not going to go
to that restaurant again like if you go and you've gotten soup there 3 times and
every single time the soups too salty and you said something to them like wow you
know maybe you should think about tasting you know how the chef taste the soup I
think it might be
a little too salty and you've never received any comments back and it happened 3
times I'm talking about
a personal experience then you kind of just you know you know maybe that's not
where I want to spend my money maybe that's not a place where I want to have
a relationship because they don't seem to be interested in
a relationship because they're not communicating you know back with me but most
really great places there's going to be that communication they want that give and
take the chef somebody in that kitchen is actually looking at every plate that
comes back they're looking at it to see what what's still on that plate and then if
it's a really great place if they see a lot of stuff on
a plate they're going to say who's serving that table you can ask the server to go
find out what the what the issue was why didn't you eat that so I just did
something that came up as I said a few weeks ago with a chef who's
a friend of mine who was really upset about how he felt some people would were very
very rude to their staff so this brings up another point which is an axiom for you
know how we've always heard the customer is always right well
a friend of mine just Benjamin who's a cohen or
a Vetri in Philadelphia and Las Vegas he his max axiom is
a little bit different the customer is always right until they're wrong and one of
the absolute. Cardinal rules is to not be rude or insult your service
that restaurants do not like that at all so you might want to keep that in mind now
if you have an issue. Ask for the manager because the manager can solve the problem
the server may not have that ability to penny upon what the issue is so ask for the
manager in a very nice way but and do that rather than writing
a review on Yelp and saying Oh this place is there or you know that kind of stuff
that doesn't serve any purpose or really in my opinion doesn't really serve any
probes I mean Brandon you and I were talking to Gina from. A couple weeks ago right
and and you know was talking about some of the letters that come you know people
post about you know like. I took my food 1st of all it took 40 minutes to get my
food and then when I got home it was cold and she was like. OK
we tell you when you 1st come in here that's our policy to tell you how long it's
going to be you know before your food comes and the 2nd thing is I don't have any
idea do you live 5 minutes from my restaurant or 55 minutes or do you not have an
a stove at home that you can heat up your food if it's cold or what you know so the
restaurant owners like helpless basically in
a lot of the stuff so I just think the main role is be kind and just
understand that everybody's got. And when you go somewhere restaurants
really good restaurants are always trying to please you because they really want
you to have
a great experience they want to come back they want you to tell your friends
because they know also that for every person that walks out of dissatisfied they're
going to tell
a lot more people about that and satisfactory experience than somebody who really
liked it how many people they're going to tell so. Bottom line be kind
and at the same time tell people what you need when you have something that if you
want to you know actually. Get some the across because it wasn't exactly the way
you were looking forward to getting it. Yes.
That's kind of an interesting point so so Tom was saying maybe the Russians could
rate customers that that might be kind of kind of fascinating but it could cause
a lot of issues too so I don't think we'll get into that one so this is you can see
that it's probably better to use either a nonstick surface of some type or
a cast iron which is basically nonstick that season properly to cook these because
there's
a lot of cheese in them and it'll just make it make your life easier right yeah be
very hard to make it on a regular Pan Stanislav fan which also brings up
a point in the in the. The grilling aspect you're going to have to figure that one
out you know so that doesn't stick to the grill and just fall apart everywhere
which if you if you so like you use a grill pan or something like you know or
a I guess I mean we had
a spray or maybe could maybe you could do something like that so those things are
always important. I usually make an emotional idea if you bake
them. How do you do that what stuff you make them about twice the size like
a regular birth 5 and I don't take my pride and make up the baker.
Yet but take up the baker and I think because his friends are thicker than mine and
baking is probably the way to go. Yeah I agree when I make my burgers I shape them
into fairly small thick moons. And those what's sort of like medallions
and then when they cook they spread out of that and so you get
a nice burger shape and you get
a nice medium thickness and then it has this you know really pleasant Brown
Achaeans crispness around the edges the nuts are well browned and it still has
some gives some softness in the interior it's not dried out. Thank you. Next show
July 2nd green building supply right 1st to say the month and it's going to be an
Indian show one of our guests is going to be Yasu Sharma again she's going to have
some new recipes for us and I want to find lemon grass is going to be I got my loan
grass put outside I got to do that yeah she had she had some great lemon grass soup
when we last had her on the show and is going to be other there'll be other stuff
so it's going to be fun I'm sorry the chicken won't be here but if you can be you
can cook OK because as I told everybody you know you heard me that Indian food was
. Terrific So any other points that you want to make before we because we're almost
at the end of the hour. It's been
a pleasure to have you here again I'm so sorry that it's only once
a year but it's always great Kathy and I were reminiscing earlier about how we used
to drag we at the crew studios that every week for years and years right we dragged
all the equipment the burners the food set up the table we had to clean it all
before we came from or you could do anything. Jacob sometimes help drag stuff
anyway it was it was quite quite fun but we were younger than we can even I mean
either one of those can imagine that we actually did that some of you have been
there when we did that stuff right yeah yeah it was
a lot of fun but when I got on already 40 some odd people there was
a Thanksgiving shows like crazy and that in here yeah I remember that I think I was
on that line. And what I think I told this before Kathy made this what you could do
on radio she made chocolate covered strawberries right and it didn't turn out right
but nobody on the radio knew that because all my gosh those are so delicious. Had
they would have covered it but they weren't actually on that strawberry right and
they wouldn't quagmire like thanks to green building supply very. Making this place
available to us and to everybody's Whole Foods for all the wonderful food Jan
calling her nice to see you I do know you're back in town that's great and of
course the Fairfield media center Jason. Strong for producing the show and thank
you all for coming it was great to see you on July 2nd.
Bridge it is.
So good that it is.